Agroecologia no semiárido: experiências e proposta de sistema agroflorestal agroecológico para regiões de caatinga no Ceará

Abstract

It is clear that humanity is experiencing a socio-environmental crisis caused mainly by the conventional agricultural model, a reality that can only be changed after a paradigmatic transition from agribusiness to Agroecology. Agribusiness has caused several disturbances in nature and human society, causing degradation of natural environments, with an emphasis on tropical forests, in addition to social inequality, environmental racism and misery, due to the large tracts of land that are privatized for such activity. In Brazil, the semiarid region has been, for centuries, the stage of an intense exploitation of local resources, leading to the exhaustion of large natural areas that have become desertified. From this degradation, the people of the countryside were being expelled from their lands, being forced to migrate to the big cities. The few that remained have been trying to survive in the face of a miserable scenario. Fortunately, family farming resists as a social and political group that seeks productive alternatives for its reproduction, as well as for the conservation of natural resources. Family farmers have managed to stay in the semiarid mainly due to governmental and non-governmental actions that assist these subjects in the practice of an agriculture that is less aggressive to the environment and to themselves, based on the principles of Agroecology, having as a big bet the Agroforestry Systems. In this sense, the present research talked about successful agroecological and agroforestry experiences in the region, serving as a basis for the proposal of an Agroecological Agroforestry System model for the subsistence of a family of five in the semiarid, precisely in the state of Ceará, Brazil. From the implementation of agroforestry, the semiarid can become a carbon sink, contributing to the global dynamics of greenhouse gases, just as the countryman can have a better quality of life, autonomy and food and nutritional sovereignty, happiness and abundance. Thus, it is concluded that the semiarid has potential for the production of agricultural products, fruits and wood, from integrated production systems such as Agroforestry Systems, as well as for the construction of new social technologies and agricultural machines, assisting in the process of agroecological transition in search of true sustainable development in the region.